Edwards Bumps Way To A Busch Victory

May 14, 2005|By NORM WOOD Daily Press

RICHMOND — Carl Edwards shoves Emporia native Elliott Sadler out of the way on the final lap to win.

Carl Edwards may come across as a soft-spoken, good-natured kid, but he showed a little attitude and a lot of muscle on the last lap of Friday's 250-lap Busch Series race at Richmond International Raceway.

Elliott Sadler wasn't impressed.

Edwards almost knocked Sadler into the wall on the last lap of a green-white-checkered-flag restart, grabbed the lead and held on for the win. It was Edwards' second Busch victory of the season.

After the 13th caution flag came out with two laps remaining, Sadler was leading, but wasn't able to pull away on the restart. During the caution, Sadler, a native of Emporia, radioed to his pit crew and said his left front tire was going flat. It caused him big problems in the last two laps.

Edwards, who was second on the final restart, closed the gap in a hurry and got the nose of his car underneath Sadler on the last lap.

Coming out of Turn 2, the front right of Edwards' Ford made contact with Sadler's left rear. Sadler started to fishtail.

Sadler, 30, was able to keep his Ford from hitting the wall and straightened it up in the backstretch, but Edwards took advantage and moved into the lead. Edwards held off Sadler and crossed the start- finish line for the win. It was the only lap Edwards led all night.

Edwards, 25, and Sadler had an opportunity to talk on pit road after the race. Sadler logged his first top-five finish in 11 Busch races at RIR, but he wasn't ready to celebrate when he had his post-race moment with Edwards.

"I just told him I would not race him like that," said Sadler, who worked his way up from a starting position of 22nd. "I think he knew he wasn't as good as us, so he just decided to knock us up out of the way."

Edwards didn't see eye-to-eye with Sadler's impression of the last lap. Edwards, who also won a Busch race in March at Atlanta, said he was just racing hard. He leads the Busch standings by 180 points over second-place Clint Bowyer, who finished sixth Friday.

There won't be much distance between Edwards and Sadler at the start of tonight's 400-lap Nextel Cup race at RIR. Sadler is starting in the fifth position, while Edwards will begin 11th.

With seven laps remaining, Sadler looked like he was headed to his first win at Richmond. He got below Johnny Sauter coming out of Turn 2 and bumped Sauter out of the way to take the lead. Sauter had to slow down, which allowed Edwards to slide into second behind Sadler.

Sauter led 49 laps but settled for third place. His last Busch victory came in September 2003 at Richmond. Pole-sitter Kasey Kahne finished fourth.

Bowyer led a race-high 66 laps, but he struggled with a vibration in the front of his car in the closing stages of the race.